1. Field of the Invention
This invention is related to peripheral interfaces and, more particularly, to mechanisms to efficiently implement peripheral interfaces.
2. Description of the Related Art
There are a variety of peripheral interfaces that have been implemented over the years for computing systems. In some cases, proprietary interfaces are used. More commonly, however, standard interfaces are used by both peripheral device manufacturers and system manufacturers. Device manufacturers implement such an interface to broaden the number of system into which a given device may be installed. Similarly, systems manufacturers implement a standard interface to broaden the number of devices that can be installed in a system.
Standards that have been used in personal computer (PC) systems, other computer systems, and electronic systems of various types include the industry standard architecture (ISA) bus, the enhanced ISA (EISA) bus, the peripheral component interconnect (PCI) bus, the universal serial bus (USB), etc. One standard that is currently popular is the PCI Express (PCIe) standard. The PCIe standard combines compatibility with the popular PCI software model with a high speed serial interface.
Because of its popularity, it is desirable to design circuitry that can interface to PCIe. However, providing flexibility in configuring the interface and providing a cost effective, efficient design is challenging.